conlangfandomcom-20200223-history
Nolikan
Nolikan language (native name: Noliki carag) is a group of related dialects of the Khacheric family. The language discussed here is the classical language of the Ankawidan empire (called Ankawidani, hereafter anglicized as Ankawidanian). Since modern dialects are very divergent (the speech of Shilkarya and the Delta are as different as English and Dutch on ancient Terra), the speakers use classical Nolikan as a standard. It is also the language of the Achobisak''Spelling of names and titles is anglicized within English sentences - the standard romanization in ''Acobisak, the holy book of the Esakhidan religion. Phonology Vowels The vowel system is very simple. Nolikan is a syllable-timed language, so there is no reduction of unstressed vowels. Stressed vowels are long in the open syllables: ļir 'ɬir, ļirak 'ɬi:rak Consonants The table cannot present the Nolikan consonant system in full detail: #A glottal stop occurs predictably before an initial vowel, e.g. anka 'pure' 'ʔaŋka. It may be considered phonemic or not. #/t d n/ are dental, /l r s z ɬ/ are laminal alveolars #/ɬ/ is affricated to t͡ɬ after /r l n/ or a fricative, even across word boundaries: haxļa 'cow' 'haxt͡ɬa #/n/ assimilates to a following postalveolar or velar stop #voiced obstruents are devoiced before a voiceless one. Ajtam 'in the country'' is pronounced aʧ'tam However, there is no anticipatory voicing: eļga 'rib' is pronounced 'ʔeɬga'' #/ld/ is often pronounced /ll/. Stress When a word ends in a consonant, the last syllable is stressed; otherwise - the penultimate. The exceptions occur in some inflexional forms and are always marked in this grammar. Phonotactics Primary syllable structure of Nolikan is CV©, where /p w/ do not occur in coda position (at least in native vocabulary) and /j/ only in muyga 'mumble, jabber'. Noun Nouns are inflected for case and number. Plurals almost always end in ''-ak'' Nolikan has 5 cases: ergative, absolutive, dative, genitive and locative. There is also a vocative particle ya, as in ya Esax 'O God'. There is no morphological distinction between nouns and adjectives. Nouns used as modifiers are always in absolutive singular, as in mal karzusa 'sweet kiss', ergative: mal karzusal, genitive plural: mal karzusane. Declensions Declension I – nouns ending in -a - cida 'day' Declension II – nouns ending in a consonant - ļir 'dream' In genitive plural, nouns ending in n receive ''-de'' and ones ending in l receive ''-le'': baģunde 'valleys'', sulle 'sad ones'' Nouns that end in a stop have ''-še'' in dative plural and ''-ekam'' in locative plural: hob 'thing' yields hobše and hobekam. If tš dš clusters arise, they are simplified to c j: ubad 'horse' yields ubaje. Nouns ending in s have an assimilation in the dative: Kutas 'Satan' yields Kutasis in dat. sing. Same nouns have syncope in the locative: ajat 'country'', ajtam 'in the country'.'' There are two groups of so called peculiar nouns in this declension: *nouns that ended in clusters in the proto-language - tolok 'tree': Me 'leg' and gi 'tooth' belong here. Wherever a hiatus could occur, an intrusive w appears: mewak, giwo. *nouns with biconsonantal stems - han 'flower' declension III – nouns in vowels other than /a/ - mabu 'grandmother' The noun mek 'people' has its own declension. It occurs in the plural only. Case usage The absolutive marks subject of an intransitive sentence or the patient in a transitive sentence, as well as subject of a sentence in the middle or reciprocal voice: *'Axcin' menduha gulam arģa 'A boy sits in front of the house' *'Dixkimek' mospata 'The pagans were defeated' *'Zaxum si zaxod' ris karazo 'Husband and wife are kissing' The ergative marks the agent in a transitive sentence. It is also used for causes of states and events: *ahmeha jahrisal sul 'Sad because of a friend's death With verbs of perception, the roles are reversed: *Binat cumanil linate 'The girl saw a barbarian' (he caused her to see him) The genitive marks possessor: *'axcino' sabax 'the boy's dog' It is also used before relational nouns: *'tolokne' niram 'above the trees' The dative marks indirect objects, as well as a superior in a relationship: *Xasibil Isoliš yag kenate 'Khasib gave the knife to Isol' *'axcince' menor 'the boys' father' *'Esaxiš' jimran 'I worship God' Subjects of modal verbs and verbs of knowledge and perception are in the dative: *'Lamiš' salawam colasa pirnat 'Noone is allowed to run naked' *'Neš' kur la sulpat 'I don't know this' It marks also the goal of motion: *'Ļimsariš' dode 'the road to Tlimsar' The ablative marks origin or source of motion: *'Acwirex zelanda' 'I went from the city (by foot)' *Bine carag Esaxex kenate 'Our language is a gift from God' This case is regularly used only in the Achobisak. In the classical language, which is around 200 years younger, it is replaced by the genitive except of personal pronouns. The locative marks location or path: *'acwiram' mek 'the people in the city' *'dodayam' zela 'he is going down the road' It is the case in which the relational nouns are used: *biškaha niram 'above the belly' The locative has also an adverbial and comparative function: *'cetikam' tol zalat 'She sings freely' (sc. as she wants to) *'horbiļam' ruz 'evil as a demon' Most verbs have an ergative-absolutive allignment, but some have different. As seen above, jimra 'to worship, pray' has absolutive-dative, as do some other verbs, e.g. šarbe 'love'. Relational nouns Relational nouns are normal nouns gramatically, but they are distinguished by their meanings. Generally, they denote spatial relations. For example, nir means 'up', 'the upper part of something'. Relational nouns in the locative, genetive and dative are equivalents of Indo-European prepositions. Therefore, niram means 'above' or 'about', niro or nirex means 'from above' and niriš 'up (as a direction)'. Similarly, ļub means 'lack (of something)' but ļubam is 'without'. Pronouns Personal pronouns Among personal pronouns remains ģin, having the meaning of 'one's own'. Cf. *Mehendimil ģin rahib pezalata 'Warrior picked up his sword' (his own) *Mehendimil to rahib pezalata 'Warrior picked up his sword' (e.g. his enemy's) Demonstrative pronouns There are three basic ones: kad 'so', kur 'this' and haģe 'that'. They are the basis of all demonstrative expressions: *kadi 'such', derived from kad ''using the standard nominalizing morpheme ''-i. *kuram 'here' and hayam 'there' (both are locative cases, the latter was shortened from haģayam) *kum < *kur xazum 'now' and hazum < *haģe xazum 'then' Interrogative and negative pronouns Interrogative pronouns include: *kam 'who' *kaļ 'what' *kali 'why' *koc 'which' *nok 'how' *nadi 'where' *nax 'when' Negative pronouns are formed by prefixing la 'no' before a demonstrative or interrogative pronoun, or a noun: *lakad 'no way' *laxzum 'never' c or j, the second person singular has št instead of c: eja 'to become' yields ejašta 'you became'. Future The future, apart from its obvious function, expresses impossible things: *Takšahiš dode nadi decore? 'Where is (literally: will be found) the road to Texas?' (Texas was on another planet and there is no road there) Moods The imperative has two inflexional forms: The imperatives work as in a nominative-accusative language, with object in the absolutive put after them (this is the only exception from the verb-final word order): *'Mandi' wed! 'Eat bread' Optative is formed using the particle du after the verb in any tense: *Nal kur solkel la mahate du. 'I wish I hadn't drunk that wine' *Lemyadan cal decore du. 'May you find happiness' Voice There are two voices apart from the active: middle, formed by the particle ra and reciprocal by ris: * jegut 'they are hurt' **ra jegut 'they hurt themselves' **ris jegut 'they hurt one another/each other' These particles occur typically after the subject, but not necessarily. Numerals Other numbers are formed in a completely regular way, by summing the multiples of powers of ten: 2744 is po tehirak haje tagniyak bir šodak bir. Fractions are formed with the denominator in ablative plural: maxke pexexak '3/8'. Derivational morphology Suffixation is the most common derivational process. Most common suffixes are given below: * '-m' – added to a verbal stem to form name of an agent **kumle 'to listen' →kumlim 'listener' * '-sa' (assimilated to ša if there is a š in the root) to form nomina actionis: **karazo 'to kiss' →karzusa 'a kiss' **takše 'to roam' → takšiša 'rage' * '-ļ' or '-g' (archaic) –forms names of patients: **juke 'to hunt' →jukeļ 'game animal' **iboka 'to fantasize' → ibokaļ 'story' **cara 'to speak' → carag 'language' * '-dan' (with '-tan' and '-an' as variants) form abstract nouns: **bar 'precious' →bardan 'price' **toš 'equal' →toštan 'equality' **wimaj 'strong' →wimajan 'strength' * '-kar' for place names **nuda 'to wash' →nudakar 'bathroom' **han/ hand- 'flower' →handikar 'garden' * '-i' ('-ni' after a vowel) forms names of inhabitants and languages: **Yoket →Yoketi 'a Yoketian' or 'Yoketian language' **Šilkarya →Šilkaryani 'a Shilkaryani' or 'Shilkaryani dialect' *the same suffix forms names of members of collectives: **cuma 'horde' →cumani 'barbarian, vandal' * '-za' for qualities, especially colors: **mahnu 'fur' →mahnuza 'brown' * '-cin' for diminutives and '-mu' for augmentatives: **pilac 'heart' →pilaccin 'little heart' **korta 'head' →kortamu 'pumpkin' * '-hob' (in itself meaning 'thing') for inanimate objects: **šil 'beautiful' →šilhob 'ornament' **ziwale 'to play' →ziwalihob 'toy' *'''-waš''' forms names of people according to their affinities: ** jego 'hurt' →jegwaš 'cruel' There are two affixes used to form verbs from nouns: *'''-e''' - 'to perform an action' **xur 'breath' → xure 'to breathe' *'''-no''' - 'to imitate someone or something' ** sabax 'dog' → sabaxno 'to follow' Periphrastic constructions are often employed instead, e.g. anka eja 'to be purified', literally 'to become pure'. The most unusual part of the Nolikan derivational system are infixes, used to form verbs from verbs. They are usually placed before the last consonant of the root: *'⟨tu⟩' - causative (used only with intransitive verbs) ** jolo 'to live' →jotulo 'to conceive', 'to beget' *'⟨xa⟩' - trying to achieve the meaning of the main verb ** pela 'to hold' →pexala 'to desire' *'⟨za⟩' - inchoative ** xirpe 'to sleep' →xirzape 'to fall asleep' *'⟨li⟩' - strengthening the meaning of the main verb ** cola 'to run' → colila 'to flee' *'⟨ni⟩' - end of an action ** jolo 'to live' →jonilo 'to die of natural causes' Prefixes are rarer, but not unheard of: *'ku-', adding a sinister aspect to the meaning: ** kel 'water' →kukel 'flood' ** šub 'fast' →kušub 'mad, insane' *'so-' 'a piece of' **mal 'pleasant' → somal 'caress' **riģ 'iridium' → soriģ 'Ankawidanian iridium coin' Nolikan has also many compound words, especially tatpurusas, cf. duštisabax 'dachshund' (literally: hole-dog). Compounds with verbs (cf. zaljun < zala-jun 'sing-woman', 'songstress') and relational nouns (cf. korta-ļub 'headless') are also common. Sometimes sandhi occurs, since the Nolikans found hiatus cacophonous: *jerga 'dawn' + inam 'daughter' → jerg'e'''nam 'nymph' Syntax Nolikan uses typically SOV word order and is consistently head-final. As in any fusional language, the word order is more free than in English. Equative sentences Nolikan has no copula. The meaning is achieved by combining two nouns in the absolutive: *Ankawidan karu 'Land of the Pure is rich' *Kur mij gilbad 'This man is a chieftain' There is also an emphatic construction with the noun ''toš 'equal': *Hejamo Warestan huje lemyadano toš 'The Golden Order is (equal to) happiness for all' Expressing possession There is no verb meaning 'to have'. Two constructions, both using the dative, can be used to replace it: *Joniš yag kenate. 'The woman as a knife', literally: 'A knife has been given to the woman' *Joniš yag tiste. Literally, 'woman's knife exists'. The construction with the existential verb tis in the aorist is obligatory when talking about inalienable entities: *Tawiš šil xorak tiste 'She has beautiful eyes' Comparisons Comparisons are done using the relational noun pan 'beyond': *Isol Xasibo panam wimaj. 'Isol is stronger than Khasib' (literally: strong beyond Khasib) Superlative is replaced by the word hupan, etymologically hud-pan 'beyond all': *Hupan perdu 'the ugliest' *Hupan yatwe 'the wisest' Before non-adjectival nouns, hupan acquires the meaning of 'having the most typical qualities of an X' or 'superior as an X': *Hupan kuwid 'the greatest despot' *Hupan binat 'the most girly girl' Relative clauses There is a relativizer, dar, used to form all relative clauses: *Mijil solkel mahe 'Man drinks wine' **mijil mahe dar solkel 'the wine drunk by the man' **tol solkel mahe dar mij 'the man that drinks wine' *Axcin arģa 'Boy sits' **Arģa dar axcin 'the boy that sits' *Haģe hobne ļubam joludan saļub 'Without those things life is worthless' **So ļubam joludan saļub dar hobak 'Things, without which life is worthless' Pronouns in the absolutive are absorbed by the relativizer; those in other cases are not. Dar is also used in temporal and locative phrases: *Handak tiste, dar šundam bice xirpisa korja. 'We want to sleep where there are flowers' *Cumanil zalata, dar xazum likšanda. 'I cried, when the barbarian sung' However, one can also use nominalization: *Cumanil zalsaha xazum likšanda. 'I cried during the barbarian's singing' Conjunctions Among most popular ones are: *'ahno' 'so': Mij jahreļ, ahno la zahlare 'The man is dead, so he won't answer' *'aštu' 'in order to', 'so that': Mek mulut aštu taļ mandit. 'People work in order to eat' *'bil' 'because': Meljandiyak ruzak bil šarnaxce jimrat 'The Meljanese are evil, because they worship sharnakhs' *'sax' 'but': Kur la nokri, sax arzu 'It's no hawk, it's an eagle' *'si' 'and': axcin si binat 'Boy and girl' *'ter' 'if': Ter šec la mulusa korja, la mandi 'If you don't want to work, don't eat' *'ul' 'or': cetik ul jahreļ 'Free or dead' Unlike English, Nolikan does not permit connecting sentences without conjunctions. Quoting Nolikan does not use indirect speech. The sentence quoted is incorporated into the main one as the pronoun kur and then pronounced verbatim: *Botil kur carata, ģitoļ zalat, literally 'The old man said this, the stars sing'. Personal names A Nolikan has two names: childhood name given by the mother after birth, and adult name given by a priest on the 12th birthday (equivalent to 15 in Earth years). Masculine names are either references to martial (Ahmelati 'Friendly Arm') or moral (Dixkiļub 'Without Frivolity') virtues or to animals admired for their strength and virility (Takšim 'Tiger'). Girls can have names of moral virtues too (Ankadan 'Purity'), but more often their names allude to beauty (Barhejam 'Precious Gold') or pleasure (Maldan 'delight'). It is characteristic of the Nolikans to use negated names of vices (Alikril 'Not Vain'), in line with the Achobisak commandment to express contempt for Kutas. Use of compound nouns as names is considered aristocratic. The name of the prophet, Nurxasib (literally, 'Virtue-Peace') is not given to any other man, but various phonetically similar names are common. Titles such as "the absolute role-model" (Wastatin Jextibar) and "the happiness of the universe" (Hutistano Lemyadan) can also be alluded to, giving seemingly nonsensical names like Wastibar, Hulem or Nurab. Writing system Nolikan has its own syllabary, based on the Yoketian syllabary, which was created from earlier ideograms. For example the syllable is written using a descendant of ancient Yoketian hieroglyph for ram (ya'ak). Each CV syllable has its own unique glyph. More complex syllables are written using combinations of two or three glyphs, as in maxke, written . Schleicher's fable Nolikan version Ecanam, tawiš la kumaļ tis dar jiyaš ubadak linate: ļakil šuhad ohruhob ohrato si ļakil pod šuhadan apato si ļakil mij šubam apato. Jiyal ubaje kur carata: „Ne pilac jego, ter mijil ubadak osturo dar neš line.” Ubadoļ haģe zahlata: „Kumli, ya jiya, lunde pilacak jego, ter kur luce line: podwidam mijil kumaļo ģin lumre uxtelax xot. Si jiyaš la kumaļ tis.” Jiyaš kur kumlate, ahno tawa šolmiš colilato. Gloss Hill-LOC, 3sg.DAT no wool exist.PRS.3 REL sheep-DAT horse-PL see-PST.3: one-ERG heavy wagon pull-PST.3 and one-ERG big load carry-PST.3 and one-ERG man fast-LOC carry-PST.3. Sheep-ERG horse-DAT.PL this speak-PST.3: "my heart hurt.PRS.3, when man-ERG horse-PL drive.PRS.3 REL 1sg.DAT see.PRS.3." Horse.ERG.PL that answer.PST.3: "Listen-IMP, VOC sheep, 1pl.EXCL.GEN heart.PL hurt.PRS.3, when this 1pl.EXCL.DAT see.PRS.3: lord-LOC man-ERG wool-GEN own warm clothing make.PRS.3. And sheep-DAT no wool exist.PRS.3" Sheep.DAT this hear.PST.3, so 3sg plain-DAT flee-PST.3 Literal translation On a hill, a sheep which had no wool saw horses: one was pulling a heavy wagon, one was carrying a big load and one was carrying fast a man. The sheep said to the horses: "My heart hurts when I see man driving horses". The horses answered: "Listen, sheep, our hearts hurt when we see this: man, the lord, makes his warm clothes from wool. And sheep has no wool". Sheep heard this so she fled for a plain" See also *Nolikan dictionary *Another Nolikan text (a song) with a translation Category:Languages Category:Nolikan